Page 139 of Pretty Wicked Secrets

I frown and push her back, keeping a firm hold on her shoulders. Her voice is slurred and she looks pale, tired, and ragged as all fuck.

“What’s wrong?”

Her eyes well up, and she shakes her head, sagging into my arms again.

I rub her arms briskly. She’s here, and that should be all that matters, but she’s also cold and trembling and can barely stand.

I look at Maddoc sharply. “What did that piece of shit do to her?”

“She’ll be okay.”

That’s not an answer, and Maddoc’s eyes soften like he knows it.

“McKenna’s men drugged her,” he says. “Let’s get her upstairs. It’ll work its way out of her system once she gets some rest.”

“Are you sure?” I ask, already moving to do it.

Chloe stumbles, and Maddoc steps in to help.

“Not sure what exactly he gave her, but yeah, I’m pretty sure,” he says as we work together to get her up to my room. “I’ve seen shit like this before. They didn’t hurt her. She’ll be okay after a little sleep.”

Except she was on the streets, on her own, for way too fucking long.

“I can get Shane here tomorrow to check her out, princess,” Dante offers, as if he read my mind. He and Logan followed us into my room. He glances at Maddoc. “You okay with that, Madd?”

“’Course.”

“Okay,” Dante says, drawing the word out as I get Chloe settled in my bed. “So, you gonna tell us what went down now?”

I bristle for a second at his pissed-off tone, but then realize it’s not getting my sister back that he’s mad about. It’s that, since Dante is asking, Maddoc must have gone to get her on his own. The last thing I remember is going over the map with him after Logan and Dante had both gone upstairs for the night, and if I didn’t already know that the world they live in is way too dangerous for Maddoc to go up against West Point on his own, the fact that his shirt is soaked in blood now would be a dead giveaway.

But he did it anyway.

He did it for me.

“I thought of a place McKenna might have stashed her,” Maddoc says.

“Great,” Dante says, throwing his arms up. “And you didn’t wake us to go with you… why now?”

Maddoc doesn’t flinch. “I needed to check it out.”

“Where?” Logan asks, just as intense as Dante even though his anger is more contained than Dante’s.

Maddoc’s jaw clenches. “A West Point safe house.”

The three of them share a long look.

“It’s barely even in his territory,” Logan finally says, his voice flat. “McKenna’s a fucking idiot.”

“You’rea fucking idiot,” Dante says to Maddoc before he can respond to that. “Don’t do that shit again, yeah?” He jerks his chin toward the dried blood coating Maddoc’s throat. “Not without us.”

“I got her back.”

“Not the point.”

“I mean, it’s kind of the point,” I say, squeezing Maddoc’s arm with gratitude to break their stare off. “Thank you.” Then I smack him. “But I agree with Logan and Dante. You could have died!”

Maddoc captures my hand and holds onto it. “It’s just a scratch.”

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